The present invention relates to devices for conveying articles and has been developed with particular attention to its possible use , for example in the field of automatic packaging plants for articles such as food products, etc. Such plants are usually organised with a sequence of several stations for carrying out successive handling operations on a substantially continuous flow of articles transported on belts and similar conveyor devices.
When the path of advance of the articles through the plant is planned, it is obviously necessary to take account of space requirements and this leads to the definition, from time to time, of specific plant configurations (layouts). In this connection, it is very important to be able to change the path of advance of the articles both by imposing a curved or elbowed course on their flow, and by dividing a flow into two or more branch flows which are not necessarily identical.
For example, it may be useful to arrange for the two branch flows to take up 75% and 25% of the starting flow, respectively. Moreover, it is desirable to be able to modify the layout of a certain plant fairly easily in order to take account of specific requirements of use which may vary temporarily.
The object of the present invention is to provide a conveyor device which can satisfy the requirements stated above perfectly.
According to the present invention, this object is achieved by virtue of a carousel arrangement for moving the articles between input and output conveyors. The carousel has selectively movable means for engaging and releasing the articles at positions corresponding to selected input and output conveyors.